Name

Gwen Baird

Armour

4

Class

Hunter

Health

25

Level

5

Dodge

1

Species

Half-Elf (Wood/Human)

Species Skills (Half-Elf)

Strength

6

Elf Sight

5

Agility

5

Base Skills (Hunter)

Body

5

Stealth

7

Mind

6

Perception

5

Sense

6

Tracking

6

Charm

6

Archery

6

A hole had been punched through the hastily built barricade put up between two houses. The monsters streamed through, breaking the planks into even smaller splinters beneath their clawed feet.

The villagers were doing their best to keep them back, using everything from long pikes and spears, to a long backed chair. Some of the villagers appeared like they were putting up a valiant attempt to get some stabs in, but Gwen was willing to bet that before she had arrived not a drop of blood had been spilled on either side. That just seemed to be how it was working.

That changed when she stepped into view.

Slathering jaws growled, drool hitting the ground in long ropes.

One came at her with a roar, sweeping the villagers who had been keeping it back with one of its too long arms. It was off balance thanks to the claws that sprouted from its fists, and when it punched out at Gwen she was able to whirl around it, getting behind it and stabbing her sword into the vulnerable spot beneath one of its outstretched arms. She pushed the sword in as deep as she could, wrenching it first down and then ripping it out again. Pulling a knife from a sheath on her belt, she got it in the back next, giving where it's kidneys should have been if were human a second tearing slice that bit deep through the fur and bark. The blood of the monster came with it in massive spurts, before it fell down and dissolved into the dirt of the road.

There was a clattering behind her, the villagers were getting up, from where the monster had cast them aside. The chair had been turned into kindling but they all seemed healthy enough. The rest of the monsters were still trapped by the circle of villagers, one had apparently tried to dodge but was now nursing an arm that was leaking green blood. The villagers looked to her, so did the monsters everything seemed to be waiting for her to make a decision.

"What's going on?" Gwen asked coming to a stop beside one of the women. She looked to be in charge, partly because of the very large and knobbly stick she was holding, and partly because of the eagle-eyed glare she was casting about the place. She was older, her hair a shock of white tied back in a braid. Her body had the wiry look of one of those old people who turn to muscle and sinew as they age. Like a thorn tree that does its best to take over its corner of the garden and will use those thorns to take out an eye of any overly ambitious gardener who tries to take a pair of secateurs to it.

"We've been waiting for you to show up, Adventurer," she said never taking her eyes off the monsters in front of her.

Gwen looked at her, "What exactly am I supposed to do, you all seem to be managing fine without me?" This was true, it had, after all, only been when she had shown up that the monster had broken through their semi circle.

"Hmmmm," the elderly woman said.

Gwen frowned, "But they've just been standing here, not attacking except when I arrived? That isn't what's supposed to happen, right?"

This felt like another one of those pesky philosophical quandaries that game developers liked to drop in to make sure you were paying attention and not just going all murder-happy. Gwen let out a sigh, what she was about to say was ridiculous. And it didn't help that she knew it was before she had even uttered the words. "I think I have to go and see if they are willing to surrender?"

There was a murmur of disagreement from the villagers. But the same woman was the only one who spoke up, now Gwen had her attention and she was looking at her as if she was dangerously mad. "You cannot be serious. They're monsters!"

"And if we don't offer them the chance to surrender then so are we," Gwen said, dragging her hand down her face. She risked a look at the villagers.

No one seemed very impressed by her argument.

I either need to put some more points into Charm or else I really need to put some work into levelling up my speaking skills, she thought ruefully, I really can't afford to let it become a dump stat. She sighed, but that will have to come after all the points I should have already put into Agility and Body. Well, my next level up can't be too far off, I hope. Gods, I want some magic, is it too much to ask that I get it all at once?

"That's a good line, been saving that one up all special, like?" the woman asked spitefully.

"No, I just have good words sometimes," she muttered. "I cannot believe I am doing this."

Pushing her sword into the rough leather of the scabbard at her side, Gwen started to walk down the rectangle towards the monsters.

Even with her weapons put away she was probably not the most welcoming or peaceful-looking person, she knew. She couldn't quite chase the glare off her face, for one thing.

Gwen stepped carefully down the worn path that led behind the inn. Her hands in front of her to show off how empty they were, she started to talk.

"Look, I don't know what you wanted, why you came here, but you've got to see that it's turning out badly for you. If you stop, if you leave, then I'm fairly certain we can all agree that it was a case of you having some shitty orders and learning the better of it," she kept her voice pitched low, but clear.

She tried to push her Charm points into every word, layering them with the small scraps of skill she had picked up at that night in the Inn. A night, she struggled to believe, which was only from the day before yesterday. It felt like a hundred years ago.

The wolf-like head of the closest monster lowered, it looked at her out of wide, blank eyes. There was, she realised, not anything that she could recognise in that look. Not fear, or concern, or hate, or even old fashioned blood-lust, it was just blank. Not even like an animal, like a statue.

Her Charm seemed to slither off that blank look, not getting a purchase.

She stopped several metres away from the knot of monsters. Far enough away that she could keep them all in sight without having to twitch her head back and forth tracking them. They were not making her show of mercy feel very good, which was rude of them. She wasn't getting any nice buzz from doing a good thing, instead she felt stupid and certain that she was about to get her arm chewed off in a minute.

"Look, are you going to play nicely, or am I going to have to run back to that group of nice people and tell them that actually smashing you lot up was the right plan, sorry for getting in the way of your rampage?" That came out a bit sharper than she intended. The hackles on the group rose, fur starting to stretch and bend over the muscles that rose over the backs of their necks.

She let out a hiss of breath. "Right, no shouting, got that."

They seemed to feed off each other's anger, the hackles on one rising just to pull the one next to it's up.

A little pinch in the back of Gwen's mind had her stepping back, one foot carefully after another, but the sign of retreat was enough to inspire the monsters into attacking. One leapt at her going for her head and shoulders, another swiping low, trying to take her legs out from under her by removing them at the knees.

She ducked, holding her sword out low and across the striking area of the second monster. The first monster missed, the other would have cut her right leg down to the bone, but instead its claws bounced off the metal of her blade and it was the one sent backwards growling in pain.

That at least got a boost to her Swordfighting skill, bringing it up to Level 8.

"How rude, right when I was being nice and everything," she said, setting her shoulders and settling into a crouch, she twirled the sword in her hand slowly. It wasn't quite taunting, but she was definitely not showing them the respect they felt due to them. The growling was starting to get louder. "Now, I came over here to try and be friendly. Lashing out after that is a bit of a diplomatic faux pas, I'm afraid. But I really am willing to let bygones be bygones if the lot of you just clear off into the woods and don't come back."

Again, her Charm fell flat as the monster appeared completely unaware of her even speaking. It wasn't as if she was failing, she was familiar with how that felt. It was something else. The skills just weren't landing like they should on the monster in front of her.

"What is it with you and finding the quickest route to getting killed?"

The tone was fond, but masked by true exasperation.

Gwen's face broke into a smile. "I guess I've never been good at the whole making sensible choices thing."

"Well that's true enough," Marina's footsteps on the hard ground were loud, the jingling of her armour a cheerful accompaniment. "And has become doubly obvious the last couple of days."

Gwen grimaced. Dying hadn't been fun. But it was probably worse to be on the watching side when you didn't immediately wake up knowing that you weren't dead. "Sorry." She said sheepishly.

"You can apologise after we've killed these arseholes: there's another wave coming out of the forest in our direction and we barely stayed ahead of them to get here. I'd rather not have more monsters hanging around behind our backs," Marina said brusquely.

Gwen shrank inside. Yup, that was an angry and hurt Marina, no way to mistake her for any other version. A little voice in the back of her head started singing, You're in trouble nooowww! This was not helpful and was in fact quite distracting. She risked a quick look over at her sister. Marina was pale and her lips had thinned so dramatically that they had basically disappeared into the crease of her mouth.

The singing voice got louder and she gulped.

A movement out of the corner of Gwen's eye had her stepping to the side, her sword rising once more to block a downward swing of a clawed arm. Pulling her dagger from her hip, she stabbed forwards with it, catching the monster in its less protected belly. Her knife dug deep into the fur, the armour of the insectoid part not covering that far down: with a jerk Gwen pulled her knife out again, leaving the monster to slip off her blades and fall to the ground. Its blood started to pool around its body before it started to dissolve into the earth.

A second monster came swinging at her, this one had a scorpion's tail in the place of an arm and she had to slash wildly with her sword and dagger to keep it and the liquid coating its sharp barb, from touching her. She regretted not taking the shield with her for a moment, but she found the opportunity seconds later to bear forwards with her sword, keeping the barb back and away from her. The monster was half twisted around by the force of her lunge, and she was able to stab her dagger up through the base of its throat and into the back of its neck.

That was two done and in the span of seconds; beside her Marina was making similar work of a monster that had grabbed for her with wooden arms and claws, but was not beaten into the ground and bleeding out.

The villagers arrived about then, their run from the other side of the street having taken enough time to give the two Adventurers the majority of the work.

The other monsters were soon beaten down with the myriad weapons the villagers had to hand. In a few mintues they were nothing more than the mud and slimy blood that were their calling cards.

Why couldn't you have just surrendered? Was I expecting too much of you? Are you just artificial constructs sent to fight and kill with no idea of how to live in between the battles? Gwen gazed down at the gruesome muck that covered the ground, what small bits of plant life lived along the path to the stables was turning yellow and dying already.

Then she was off her feet and being hugged. Marina had grabbed her at elbow height and lifted her off her feet. The few centimetres of height difference was enough to completely throw off Gwen's centre of gravity and make her dependent entirely on her twin as her only source of stability in the world.

It was a very good hug.

***

The hug continued long enough that the villagers had not only arrived in their unpunctual horde, but they had also got whatever bravery had filled them out of their systems again and were starting to creep closer to the vague safety that the Adventurers represented.

This was despite the fact that Gwen was still being hugged around the middle and being held up like standard in the middle of the bare earth road.

The hug had even passed beyond the length of time Gwen was able to accept it, and like a cat suddenly realising that the allotted time it allowed for cuddles had elapsed, she wriggled until her sister put her down.

Taking a quick step to the side to avoid any more embarrassing emotional displays, Gwen grinned, "What took you so long?"

"Calming down after seeing my sister crushed to death took a while," she said.

The smile slipped off her face and Gwen looked down at her dusty boots.

Marina let out a sigh, "Please don't do that again?" The movement of her shadow across the ground made it clear that she was rubbing her head with her hands.

Gwen nodded.

"The others have gone in the direction of the temple; they're going to try and get their save points sorted before they get involved in any fights."

There was something in her tone that Gwen found she could easily translate as, "Thanks to you getting yourself killed they now know how important it is to have a save point in place so that you don't get sent off into some random place in the world where we can't find you." Though she might have been reading into it a touch.

Marina looped an arm around Gwen's shoulders. It wasn't so much a hug as a grapple. "Come on, let's go kill some monsters and work our way over to the temple," she gave a sigh and a shake of her head, "I thought I was done with having to keep an eye on people. You're making me nostalgic for primary school kids and their fascination for the various ways to die horribly while on school trips."

"Sorry," Gwen said again. It felt as empty and hollow a word as the last time.

"Get moving," Marina said refusing to be dragged into any more discussion. She let go of her sister and started walking away, before stopping and pulling a bag off her armoured shoulder. "Here's your stuff by the way," she tossed it over.

"Oh! Cheers," Gwen grabbed the bag out the air and opened it. It did seem to have everything she had been missing: her sword; her dagger; her bow and quiver; plus the general flotsam and jetsam that had ended up weighing her down. Even in a virtual reality where she had started out with a carefully rationed bag of belongings, it seemed that she could still find plenty to fill her pockets.

It was also, apparently, the signal for a last pinch of experience to push her over the edge of her Level and put her just over the line into Level 6. She let out a sigh of relief. At last, right first of, one point into Agility, thank you very much, she said moving as quickly as she could to sort out the inevitable admin after levelling.

A new skill tree had opened up, it was helpfully labelled "Magic" and she poked it tentatively. A notification took over her gaze.

"Congratulations, you have reached Level 6. You now have sufficient levels to start learning magic. You have three spells available to learn, which would you like to pick first?

Poison Barrage

Shadow Step

Spider Climb

With each level you gain your choice of spells will widen. Some spells require the knowledge of a separate spell, or levels in a specific skill, before you can gain access to them. Poison Barrage requires 5 levels in Archery, Shadow Step requires 5 levels in Stealth, and Spider Climb requires 5 levels in Climbing. You have the required skill levels."

She blew out a breath. Oh gods, which to pick? Poison Barrage was a very tasty choice, an Area of Effect attack something that she didn't have any of at the moment. But it was not just linked to her Archery skill but based on it. If she wasn't shooting her bow she couldn't use it, which put a dampener on her keen. Shadow Step was the ultimate in Stealthy spells, you disappeared into the shadows and could run around getting into all the mischief you wanted. But it had to be in a place that was either full of shadows, or just dimly lit. In a bright room or under the sun you wouldn't be able to use it. And Spider Climb sounded great, if you were sure that the rest of your life was going to be full of climbing. Which given her current level in the skill was a fair guess. But still.

For now she just wasn't sure. She'd figure it out later, she decided, shutting the page with a wavering determination. The middle of a fight wasn't the best time to be messing around in the gizzards of her Character Page anyway.

Gwen followed her sister through the village, latching and buckling the various things onto her body as she went. It turned into a bit of a juggling act halfway along the arching road that looped along the outside of the makeshift walls of the defences. But eventually she was able to put everything into a semblance of order. Even if she was starting to look like a hedgehog with the amount of spikes coming off her.

"I need to give some of this back to Nikolai, I borrowed things from him when I respawned in the temple," Gwen said absently as she left the last bits and pieces in the bottom of the sack and tied it onto her belt. She was carrying too much; she'd just have to hope they didn't end up walking past a magnet or she'd go shooting-

A scratching in the alley behind her had her spinning, pulling an arrow out of the quiver on her back and drawing her bow. The monster that loped out of the gap between two of the houses had a sharp-edged stone buried in its shoulder, soon it had an arrow slamming into its belly as well and was dissolving into the sludge beneath what had once been its large claws.

At the sound of the bow string moving and the arrow hitting deep into the guts of the monster, Marina too turned, but her attention was soon drawn by the companions of the animal who streamed out of the gap once their leader had been removed.

Gwen continued shooting, pulling arrows from her quiver and setting them loose into the centre of the swarm of monsters. Marina ran forward, slamming her mace into the sides of the monsters, hitting them hard enough to stun them and send them onto their sides, giving Gwen a better chance of catching them when they were vulnerable. Between the two of them, they had cleared up the half dozen monsters that came out of the small shadowy corner where they had been waiting for an ambush opportunity.

Gwen looked around, her Perception skill humming with how the recent use felt sharp with how fast she had felt the knowledge hit her. I'm not sure if that's a vote for Poison Barrage or not, she thought, it wouldn't have been much use in that instance. I didn't have the time to think let alone cast a spell. But, it would have been nice to blast them and their friends with poison before they got close.

Marina looked at the small corridor between two houses where the beasts had been hiding, "Haven't a bunch of villagers been running up and down this bit of the wall? Why didn't the mobs attack them?"

"Because the monsters don't seem to attack the villagers unless there's an Adventurer around to see them do it," Gwen said bitterly, "I don't know what to make of it, but I've seen it happening all over the village. The only other person aside from us who seems to do any damage without an adventurer telling them to or leading them is a girl called Wylla." She nudged the rock that had come loose from the dissolved body of the first monster who had lunged out at them, "she's holed up somewhere with a sling and a bucket of stones. She's doing a good job."

"Really? I mean not the fact that she's doing a good job, but the fact that no one else is? I met Nikolai and his Edgar on the way in towards you, they looked all set up to do some serious damage?" Marina said.

Gwen shrugged, "I don't know what to tell you. The monsters also don't seem to be doing much damage to the locals, either."

"That's weird," Marina said.

"I'm not disagreeing with you," Gwen said casting her hands up. She bent and started plucking the used arrows from the ground and the muck where they had fallen loose of the monsters.

"Right, well, we should get back to where everyone else is, so I can see it for myself."

Gwen shot her a look.

"I'm not doubting you, I just want to see it for myself," Marina said, "There's got to be some reason for it?"

"Well I've been a bit too busy killing things and trying not to get killed in return to work it out," Gwen said. The conversation was starting to pick up tempo and turn into a fight. This was not what she had wanted to happen within the first few minutes of her reunion with her sister after a small experience with death, but somehow, Gwen was not surprised.

"Look, let's just get over to the temple, could we?" Marina said.

"Sure," Gwen replied and started leading the way. She kept her bow drawn and an arrow slotted into place. That ambush had set her nerves a little tighter, it was all too easy to imagine that monsters could be sitting and waiting around any corner now.

The image in her head was more built out of memories of cartoons than experience. It had never been her, after all, who had been in the thick of things in the field. She preferred an out-of-the-way corner to a stage, any day.

Usually, if she was in trouble it meant a quick scrub of hard drives, placing numerous codes and bots in place to mislead anyone trying to trace her, and, at worst, a quick shimmy out the nearest window and a quicker taxi to the nearest airport or station. The easiest way to get lost was to find a good crowd and bury yourself in it.

Gwen was used to that kind of evasion. This running around in villages while holding a weapon and having things jump out of dark corners at you was not how she preferred to run her business. There had been other people who were more willing to do be in the frontline when she had worked with the others, and when she had gone her own way she had just steered clear of anything that might get that flavour of risky.

It hadn't always worked out, but that was what windows, drainpipes, and taxi drivers who would take cash and were willing to take oddly specific routes were for.

Marina looked around at the lines of fencing and cobbled together blockades. "How exactly did this happen? And how do we get through it?"

"It turns out that one of the bits of programming in the locals is an awareness of how to build decent walls at a moment's notice. As for the stuff itself, I haven't a clue where it all came from. I know that some of it is from when they hunt in the forest, but I'm not sure where they got most of this stuff," she nodded her head at a wall made out of barrels, "Those are from the bit behind the Inn. They are all pretty badly smashed on the other side, though you can't tell from here. They had a few barrels that had gotten broken in a fight a few weeks back, so we used some rope and pitch to try and stick them together. It looks pretty sturdy now, but it didn't when we were starting. The bottom row is pretty solid, and we filled them up with water to give them some weight, but who knows how long they will last if a monster actually tries something." Most of the blockades were pretty similar. If something could look like it was a defensible wall it was used, even if it wasn't actually that suitable. Some of the spots could be breached if someone breathed on them wrong. But they had gotten mostly lucky so far.

"As for getting through it, keep going clockwise. We'll get there eventually. I don't want to risk having someone think we're monsters by going over a wall," or bringing the wall down on top of us, she added to herself. Some parts of the wall were precarious. If a mob actually tried going up against them the best the villagers could hope for would be that their wall would work as a booby trap.

They kept walking.

As they passed a bit of wall made from enthusiastically stacked logs – one of the bits of wall that really would take anyone out if they tried climbing it – Gwen heard raised voices: howls, shouts, and even a scream or two from further along. But it was difficult to work out if the action was actually close enough for them to worry about, or if it was across a few walls and thus as distant in practical terms as if it were miles away.

She sped up to a jog anyway. She had gotten to know the villagers. They weren't much use in a fight, but that wasn't any reason to look down on them. Gwen wasn't usually much help either. Another scream. She started to run.

Behind her, in her much heavier armour and collection of solid metal weapons, Marina huffed and puffed. Gwen grudgingly lowered her speed a touch to let her sister catch up.

You'll be no bloody use split up and wondering where each other are, she told herself sternly. "Stick close," she hissed over her shoulder.

That turned out to be not such a great idea.

By the time she had turned her head back to what was in front of her the thing that was in front of her was running at her with its claws raised and a snarl was echoing in her ears. Any chance she had had to shoot it when it was still at a distance was long gone. It's long legs ate up the ground between them, bringing it closer and closer until she could smell the rankness of its breath.

One of its huge paws – because this thing did have paws, and the claws that went along with them – punched her in the belly, before throwing her to the side like a scarecrow. It didn't seem to think of her as much of a threat and was soon fighting with Marina.

Gwen had been thrown into a wall: the punch to the stomach hadn't done too much damage, but the percussive force of it all had driven all the air out of her lungs and she was having trouble getting it back again. On her hands and knees on the ground, her hands were in fists as she tried to drag in a breath. The air was weighted, she was certain of it, there was not enough coming into her gasping lungs and what did felt like it was as thick and heavy as oil.

Each moment she couldn't pull in any air was heralded by one of her precious health points ticking downwards until the score was dropping dangerously close to the red tinted area.

The world started to dim, just at the edges at first but the green and browns of the earth and the weeds around her started to lose their vibrancy.

No, I am not dying again, she shouted in her mind. She twisted her body, throwing herself back against the wall of the nearby cottage. That didn't help the lack of breathing, but it did mean that she was now facing the fight between Marina and the monster who had thrown her around like a toy.

Marina was having a better go of it. Between her much thicker armour and the warning, she was better suited to the bruiser of a monster than Gwen had been. Its claws were scraping down her armour, giving off a horrendous screeching noise, as Marina flipped the mace in her hand so the blunt head was below her fist. Then she arched her hand forward, shocking the monster under the chin and giving it a taste of its own medicine. While it was stunned she flipped the mace once more in her hand and set to smashing the creature about the head.

Since she wasn't the one hitting the blows, Gwen couldn't see the numbers burst out of the monster. But she could bet that it hurt all the same.

The easing of the terror eased the grip of the vice Gwen's lungs were in. Marina was managing fine without her. The world started to come back into colour and she was able to wobble back onto her feet, her lungs aching as she brought in the oxygen they had been lacking.

The monster dropped to the ground and dissolved into oily mud.

Gwen clapped, "Nice one." She said hoarsely.

Marina frowned and came over, she placed a hand on her shoulder and Gwen felt the bracing shiver of her magic running through her.

With all the running around and the levelling up and because of the after effects of her death, she hadn't had a chance to see what being at full health was like for a while. Having her health hit the much higher than normal number of 36 was like a medicine all on its own.

The remaining tightness in her chest disappeared and she was able to stand straighter. She frowned, how had she not noticed she was so stooped? That had to be a sign of something terrible. But, she thought, magic exists so I don't need to worry about it. Nice.

"Come on, we'd better keep moving I don't want the next wave of monsters coming to catch up with us before we are ready," Marina said.

Gwen nodded, "How many did you see coming when you were out in the forest?"

"Didn't really see them, heard them coming, though. We were a few miles clear from the farm and all the animals stopped making any noise, then we heard the footsteps. A long way off, and we ran pretty hard to make sure it was further. But it sounded like a hell of a lot," Marina wiped some sweat off her face.

Gwen winced. That didn't sound good.

Together they turned back to the path through the village and started to jog once more. This time Gwen was better at keeping pace with her sister, not wanting to risk another pummelling if she ran into a monster first.

Somehow, they managed to make it the rest of the way to the makeshift gates that stood at the mouth of the corridor that led to the square at the centre of the village.

Somehow, even less believably, the barriers were pushed aside and opened up. At the sight of it the twins slowed, there are few things more worrisome than an open doorway when it should be locked, bolted, and barricaded. Gwen could hear her heartbeat, the rest of the world seemed very quiet. She shot a look at her sister, then pulled at her helmet in a nervous twitch and started to run again.

The turn of speed Gwen had pushed herself to brought her into the square soon after. They passed some villagers who were attempting to hold guard. But they looked still and lost. And barely seemed to flinch as Gwen ran by.

The villagers were scattered around, some injured, others looking shell shocked and pale. Most were clustered on the opposite side of the square. Gwen went to the busiest spot.

"What is it? What's happened?"

Most of the locals looked away when she asked. One didn't. She was a middle-aged woman, with grey-streaked brown hair and a tear-stained face. The dust of the fight had been a heavy covering until her tears had started to wash off big patches of it around her eyes where her fists, if Gwen was any judge, had smudged them.

"Wylla, my Wylla, the monsters took her!" She shouted. "Why weren't you here to protect her? Isn't that what you adventures are supposed to be good for? It's not anything else," she said, a distraught sneer twisting her face.

Gwen felt like she was rocking in her boots. She looked from face to face in the crowd, the welcome she had grown used to had disappeared. They were all looking at her with the betrayal they were feeling clear on their faces.

The fist holding onto her stomach was back. It was so cold that it felt like it was burning. Or maybe that was just her guilt.

She should have been better, she should have done a better job protecting the village, she should have insisted that Wylla go back with the rest of the vulnerable people. The girl had been vulnerable, even if she had refused to see it that way. Gwen should have known better than to leave someone without a decent escape route and no back up. The other locals wouldn't have been much good, after all, they hadn't batted an eye at the monsters even as they slashed and tore at one another.

Wylla had been the only one to fight them, really fight them, like she had seen Gwen when she was being foolish.

Things started to click together. Or at least Gwen started to see where the points of connection could be made.

The monsters came to the village, why? Gwen and Marina hadn't been bait enough for them to face the village, two Adventurers on a farm was one thing, but two in a village was apparently too much for them to dare. But then Gwen died, came back to life, and they had followed her. Or maybe they hadn't. She had just assumed that, because she was an Adventurer and she had thought she was the star of the show. But she wasn't, or at least, she wasn't the only one. She should have realised that.

After all, she hadn't been the only one in the village capable of fighting them. She hadn't been the only one in the village that they had come for.

Wylla's kidnapping wasn't an accident. She had been targeted. Gwen hadn't failed her in general, as she had failed everyone else in the village, she had failed her in particular.

She should have acted when she saw that Wylla was having an effect on the monsters. She should have thought more about it, done something more than what she had done. It was her fault.

The others didn't know, they were looking with sympathy at Wylla's mum. Feeling for her, but not understanding.

The ice exploded into fire.

"I'll get her back for you," Gwen said, her shoulders hunched and her face covered with a scowl.

Then she turned on her heel and started back towards the inn.

There was a scattered murmur behind her, then Marina ran to catch up with her. Other footsteps followed, Jin Ae and Theo, Gwen guessed.

"What's with the temper, Gwen?" Marina hissed at her, grabbing her shoulder and spinning her around.

Gwen wrenched her shoulder out of Marina's grip.

"Something is going on. Before you got to the village it was a stalemate, there were only two of us doing any damage to the monsters and in return they weren't managing to do sod all to the villagers," she hissed, "and guess which other person in this village was managing to do some damage? Who not only hit the monsters but actually managed to kill them? I'll give you a clue, it's the person who got abducted by them the minute I turned my back. There is something going on here. And I am going to find out what."

Marina nodded slowly, frowning as she mulled over the same questions as Gwen. But she still looked worried and confused, "Right, but how are you going to do that?"

"I'm going to bloody well ask Dove what's going on, that's what. She didn't tell me about this, which means she either didn't know, or she lied, and I intend on finding out which it is," Gwen shook her head, it was difficult to hold on to a steady tone of voice, she wanted to rage, but the monsters were out of her reach for now.

"When did you talk to Dove?" Theo asked.

"When I died; she had a chat with me in the temple before I was properly alive and could walk around and stuff. She told me that something was making monsters in this world, but she didn't warn me about the fact that they were going to start kidnapping locals!" She stopped. The others stumbled to a halt in a halo around her. "I don't like being manipulated. And I don't like being treated like a fool; like I'm not worthy of knowing the bigger picture. And this whole thing reeks of it."

She started walking again, head back, shoulders straight and with a length to her stride that meant the others were hard pressed to keep up with her. It didn't take her long to get back to the inn.

Locals waved to her and she marched past as if not seeing them at all. The inn was empty, the Adventurers followed her like a cloud of ugly ducklings as she marched through the halls and up the stairs to her room.

"Gwen, Gwen!" Marina shouted as she started to walk up to the window.

"What?" Gwen snapped back, not breaking from her concentrated focus on unlatching and opening up the window as quickly as possible.

"What the hell are you doing?" Marina screeched.

"Getting Dove's attention," Gwen said with a sharp-edged shrug.

"By chucking yourself out a window?" Marina said, running over and grabbing her by the arm.

Gwen tried to shake her off, but her sister had put too many points into strength and was holding on like it was 1912 and Gwen had a ticket for the Titanic. "No!" She said, giving up on getting her arm back. "I just needed a high point so people could hear me. The locals don't know about her so there is probably some sort of safety measure which alerts her when people are about to say something about the world being a game. I just need to be really, really obvious about telling everyone and she should come talk to me." Gwen looked at her sister incredulously, "Why did you think I was going to hurl myself out a window?"

"Because you just charged up to one and opened it like someone with that in mind," Marina said waving her free hand between her sister and the window.

Gwen felt a little sheepish, "Well, okay, I might have been..."

"And I saw you get killed because you made a stupid fucking, self-sacrificing decision less than a day ago," Marina said.

Gwen sagged. Tears were standing out in her sister's eyes and the timeline of the last few days suddenly flipped in her view, giving her an idea of what the last few days had been like for Marina. For a second she saw a different image in her mind of their battle at the farm. What if Marina had been the one to fall, no throw herself under the monster?

Gwen's eyes filled, "Oh gods, I'm so sorry, I didn't think..."

"Yeah I kind of figured that much out," Marina said, "You never seem to."

Gwen flinched, but was dragged into her sister's arms so soon after that it was probably only Marina, with her hand her on her arm, that could tell.

A cough. Gwen looked over Marina's shoulder to see Dove, standing between Jin Ae and Theo.

She was still stood in her silver armour, her dark brown curls a cloak down her back. For a change, she no longer looked aloof and serene, instead she looked awkward and very discomfited. She waved one hand at the twins, Marina broke away and turned to see what Gwen was looking at.

"I've been keeping an eye on you since we talked, if you wanted my attention you just had to say something. I can't monitor your mental chatter as easily in high stress situations like a fight or a battle, there's too much cross talk, but anything you say out loud is easy enough to pick up," she said.

Gwen felt herself sink into her heels, embarrassment jumping up and clobbering her in the solar plexus.

"Would the four of you like to come with me to a more secure and comfortable environment where we can have a talk?" Dove asked, waving a hand towards the door. The air in the open doorway shivered for a moment then showed a different view to that of the hallway.

"That seems like a great idea, thank you, Dove," Marina said with a smile. Gripping hard onto Gwen's arm, like she might try to escape, she towed her towards the door. Marina's nails seemed to sink with impressive sharpness through the layers of amour Gwen wore.

Or maybe it was just the shame making her feel like that, Gwen thought. She ducked her head and did what she was told. She had embarrassed herself enough for now.

Theo and Jin Ae echoed Marina and followed them through the door.